Liverpool’s contract quandaries Sadio Mané’s contract expires in 2023. While FSG was once hesitant to renew, the equation has shifted.
With Mohamed Salah at the forefront of FSG’s thoughts, Sadio Mané has had to take a back seat in contract negotiations. Indeed, some outlets claim that this has irritated the Liverpool star, who feels undervalued in comparison to his teammate — an insight into the juggling act that the club hierarchy is currently juggling.
Regardless of the veracity of such reports, the fact remains that Mané’s contract expires in the summer of 2023, leaving Julian Ward with yet another major decision to make. Liverpool.com has already evaluated Naby Keta, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Roberto Firmino, and now it turns its attention to Mané.
At the end of last season, things looked bleak. Mané had significantly outperformed his expected goals (xG) in each of his previous two Liverpool seasons before suffering a major slump in 2020/21. He only scored 11 goals from 15.2 chances.
Salah, on the other hand, had his worst Liverpool goal-scoring season, and there was a sense that the defensive crisis was having a ripple effect throughout the squad.
When Mané responded with seven goals in his first 12 Premier League games, it felt almost as if everything had returned to normal.
Nearly, but not quite. The match against Leeds United demonstrated the slight shift that had occurred. Mané did find the back of the net, but it took him a remarkable ten shots to do so. The underlying xG concern remained — the Senegal star was simply shooting at a faster, eventually unsustainable rate.
Then there was the slump. After scoring seven goals in a row, there was a seven-game league drought.
Mané signed off for AFCON with a goal against Chelsea, but as he left for a 28-day absence on national duty, the tide of opinion began to shift firmly in favor of a summer sale. Renewal would have been far down the FSG priority list.
The fact that Luis Daz arrived in Liverpool earlier than expected seemed to be the final nail in the coffin. Four years Mané’s junior and a specialist left-winger in prolific form, he appeared to be a foregone conclusion as a replacement signing.
Daz, on the other hand, has proven to be one of the best things that has ever happened to Mané at Liverpool. True, Klopp has traditionally preferred the Colombian on the left flank, but the timing of his return from the African Cup of Nations coincided with injuries to both Diogo Jota and Firmino. As a result, a gap in the middle opened up, which Mané took advantage of.
He was in the right frame of mind to do so, having played through the middle for Senegal on their way to the country’s first-ever AFCON title.
Mané scored the game-winning penalty, returning with a high level of confidence and experience in a central role.
Firmino and Jota have since returned, putting Mané back in a game-time battle, but he has comprehensively demonstrated that he can compete for two different positions. Since AFCON, he has actually outperformed his xG in games where he has played a central role, a welcome return to form.
Likewise, any potential loss of explosiveness is concealed in the middle, where his quick feet and intelligent movement can still be effective.
